Drake Sued Over $50,000 Hooter

9/12/2013 3:30 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

EXCLUSIVE

Drake's expensive jewelry collection is coming back to bite him in the ass -- a famous jeweler is suing him over a $50,000 owl pendant ... claiming Drake illegally made knockoffs of it for his friends.

The jeweler Baden Baden Inc. (owned by designer Michael Raphael) filed the lawsuit, claiming Drizzy hired the company to make a custom diamond-studded platinum owl pendant back in January ... and paid $49,204.

Then in June ... BB claims gold duplicates of the pendant started surfacing on Drake's Instagram.

According to the lawsuit, BB claims Drake took its original design, copied it, and handed out the knockoffs to his pals.

Baden Baden is suing for copyright infringement, demanding unspecified damages, and asking the court to force Drake to hand over the owl copies.

One potential sticking point -- Drake's been using the owl logo for years ... it's the freakin' cover of his 2011 mixtape.